GENERAL BOTHA DEAD

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue LXXIV, 29 August 1919, Page 5

GENERAL BOTHA DEAD

VICTIM TO INFLUENZA.

BY CABLE—PBESti ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT

(Reuter.) CAPETOWN, Aug. 23. General Botha died at midnight from influenza.

The Right Hon Loxiis Botha, who was born at Greytown, Natal, in 3362, was the first Premier of the Union of South Africa He saw service in savage warfare and served as a field cornet in 1887. In 1897 he represented the Vryheid district in the Volksraad, and when tshe Boer war began he served under General Meyer, but rose rapidly until he was in command of the Boers at Coleneo and Spion Kop So capable was he that he was made oommander-in-chief of the Transvaal Boers on the death of General Joubert. After the fall of Pretoria he organised the guerilla form of warfare, which proved so difficult to overcome. He was chief representative of hi^ country at the peace negotiations in 1902. Later, with Generals de Wet and Do la Rey, he went to Europe to raise funds to help in reconstructing the Transvaal and Orange Free State. During the reconstruction pwiod he gave the British Government much good advice as to the form and style of government which he. thought would best suit the Boers, and in 1907 When self-government was granted he wa s called upon to form a Government. In 1903 he attended the Imperial Conference in London, where he declared the wholehearted loyalty of the Transvaal. In 1912 he was honored by being made an hon. general in the British Army, and in September. 1914 he took command of the South African forces. His speedy, yet tactful, suppression of the de Wet rebellion and the .splendid success of the South West African campaign indicated that he was a capable general. His loyalty to Britain and his work at the Peace Conference, particularly with regard to the future of the captured colonies, stamp him as a statesman as well as a great soldier. General Botha had returned to &outh Africa from the Peace Conference early thi ? month, and his decease will be received with deep regret throughout the Emnire.